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ORDINANCE ON CHARGES AND FEES

(No. 38/2001/PL-UBTVQH10 of August 28, 2001)

In order to unify the State management over charges and fees, contributing to boosting the socio-economic development;

Pursuant to the 1992 Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam;

Pursuant to the Resolution of the Xth National Assembly, the 8th session, on the 2001 law- and ordinance-making program;

This Ordinance prescribes charges and fees.

Chapter I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1.- This Ordinance prescribes the competence to impose, and the collection, remittance, management and use of charges and fees, by State bodies, economic organizations, people�s armed force units, other organizations, and individuals (hereinafter collectively referred to as organizations, individuals) according to the provisions of law.

Article 2.- Charges mean sums of money to be paid by organizations or individuals for services provided to them by other organizations or individuals, which are specified in the list of charges issued together with this Ordinance.

Article 3.- Fees mean sums of money to be paid by organizations or individuals for State management works performed in their services by State bodies or authorized organizations, which are specified in the list of fees issued together with this Ordinance.

Article 4.- This Ordinance does not govern social insurance premiums, health insurance premiums and other kinds of insurance premiums.

Article 5.- Where international agreements which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has signed or acceded to contain provisions on charges and fees at variance with this Ordinance, the provisions of such international agreements shall apply.

Article 6.- Organizations and individuals that are allowed to collect charges and fees include:

1. State tax offices;

2. Other State bodies, economic organizations, public-service units, people�s armed force units, other organizations as well as individuals providing services or performing works for which they are permitted by law to collect charges or fees.

Article 7.- All organizations and individuals are strictly forbidden to impose on their own any charges or fees, amend charge and fee rates already set by competent bodies, and/or collect charges and fees in contravention of law provisions.

Chapter II

COMPETENCE TO PRESCRIBE CHARGES AND FEES

Article 8.- The Standing Committee of the National Assembly promulgates the lists of charges and fees together with this Ordinance.

Article 9.- The Government has the competence to:

1. Specify the lists of charges and fees promulgated by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly;

2. Specify the principles for determination of charge and fee rates;

3. Prescribe the rates, the regime of collection, remittance, management and use of a number of importance charges and fees for nationwide implementation; assign or authorize the competence to prescribe the rates, the regime of collection, remittance, management and use of other charges and fees;

4. Submit to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly amendments and supplements to the lists of charges and fees.

Article 10.- The Ministry of Finance has the competence to:

1. Draft legal documents on charges and fees for submission to the Government for promulgation or promulgate them according to its competence;

2. Basing itself on the concrete stipulations of the Government, set the specific rates of each charge or fee, provide guidance on the determination of charge and fee rates for the agencies authorized to set such rates;

3. Prescribe the regime of collection, remittance, management and use of various charges and fees under its competence;

4 Guide the implementation of the regime of collection, remittance, management and use of collected charges and fees.

Article 11.- The People�s Councils of the provinces or centrally-run cities shall decide on the authorized collection of charges and fees, which is submitted by the People�s Committees of the same level under the guidance of the Ministry of Finance.

Chapter III

PRINCIPLES FOR DETERMINATION OF RATES, THE REGIME OF COLLECTION, REMITTANCE, MANAGEMENT AND USE OF CHARGES AND FEES

Article 12.- The determination of charge rates shall be based on the following principles:

1. The rates of charges for services invested by the State must ensure the retrieval of capital within a reasonable period of time, taking into account the State�s policies in each period.

2. The rates of charges for services invested by organizations and individuals must ensure the retrieval of capital with a reasonable period of time and suit to the payment capability of payers.

Article 13.- The rates of fees shall be pre-fixed for each work, not aiming to cover expenses, and comply with international practices; particularly for the registration fee rates, they shall be calculated as a percentage of the value of the registered property.

Article 14.-

1. Charges and fees which are collected in Vietnam shall be in Vietnam dong, except for cases where they are permitted by law to be collected in foreign currencies.

2. Charges and fees which are collected in foreign countries shall be in the currencies of the host countries or in freely convertible foreign currencies.

Article 15.- Organizations and individuals that collect charges and fees must make receipts and issue them to charge or fee payers according to regulations of the Ministry of Finance.

Where the charge or fee payers are not granted vouchers or are granted vouchers not as prescribed, they may request the charge- or fee-collecting organizations or individuals to issue vouchers to them, or lodge complaints or denunciations thereabout to competent State bodies.

Article 16.- Charge- and fee-collecting organizations and individuals must publicly post up or publicize at the collection places the names of charges and fees, their rates, the collection methods as well as the collection-prescribing agencies.

Article 17.-

1. Charges collected for services invested by the State are revenues belonging to the State budget, which are managed and used as follows:

a/ Where the collecting organizations are provided with the State budget funding for their charge collection activities according to annual estimates, they must remit all the collected charge amounts into the State budget;

b/ Where a collecting organization is not provided with the State budget funding for its charge collection activities, it may retain part of the collected charge amount to cover expenses for the charge collection and must remit the rest into the State budget.

c/ Where a collecting organization is authorized to collect charges outside its regular functions and tasks, it may retain part of the collected charge amount to cover expenses for the charge collection and must remit the rest into the State budget.

2. The Government shall specify the charge portions allowed to be retained, as well as the management and use thereof as prescribed at Points b and c, Clause 1 of this Article.

Article 18.- Charges, which are collected from services not invested by the State or services invested by the State but already transferred to organizations or individuals to provide on the cost-accounting principle, are revenues not belonging to the State budget. Organizations and individuals that collect such charges shall be entitled to manage and use the collected charge amounts according to law provisions.

Article 19.-

1. All collected fees shall belong to the State budget. Fee-collecting organizations must immediately remit all the collected fee amounts into the State budget. Where an organization is authorized to collect fees, it may retain part of the collected fee amount to cover expenses for the fee collection and must remit the rest into the State budget.

2. The Government shall specify the fee portions allowed to be retained, as well as the management and use thereof as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article.

Article 20.- Charges and fees remitted into the State budget shall be distributed to various budget levels, managed and used according to the provisions of the State Budget Law.

Article 21.- The Government shall stipulate the exemption and reduction of charges and fees in necessary cases.

Chapter IV

FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING

Article 22.- Charge- and fee-collecting organizations and individuals must implement the reporting regime, periodically report on the final settlement of the collected, remitted and used charges and fees; implement the financial transparency regime according to law provisions.

Article 23.- Organizations and individuals that collect assorted charges and fees must account separately each kind of charge or fee.

Article 24.- Charges and fees belonging to the State budget shall not be taxed.

Article 25.- Charges not belonging to the State budget, which are collected by organizations and individuals under the provisions of Article 18 of this Ordinance, shall be taxed according to law provisions.

Chapter V

RESPONSIBILITIES OF STATE AGENCIES FOR CHARGE AND FEE MANAGEMENT

Article 26.-

1. The Government shall exercise the unified State management over charges and fees.

2. The Ministry of Finance shall assist the Government in performing the unified State management over charges and fees.

3. Within the ambit of its tasks and powers, the Ministry of Finance shall have the responsibility to:

a/ Organize the implementation of the Ordinance on Charges and Fees;

b/ Oversee and supervise activities of collecting, managing and using charges and fees;

c/ Conduct financial inspection according to its competence of charge-and fee-collecting organizations and individuals;

d/ Consider and settle complaints and denunciations and handle violations of the legislation on charges and fees;

e/ Cancel and suspend the collection of charges and fees according to its competence.

Article 27.- The ministries, the ministerial-level agencies and the agencies attached to the Government shall have the responsibility to:

1. Coordinate with the Ministry of Finance in directing, guiding and organizing the implementation of the Ordinance on Charges and Fees in the branches and fields under their respective management.

2. Coordinate with the Ministry of Finance in supervising and monitoring the collection, remittance, management and use of charges and fees in the branches and fields under their respective management.

3. Report on the collection, remittance, management and use of charges and fees in the branches and fields under their respective management according to law provisions.

4. Propose to the Government activities for which charges or fees need to be collected; recommend to the Government or the Ministry of Finance the rates of each kind of charge or fee.

Article 28.- Within the scope of their respective tasks and powers, the People�s Committees at all levels shall perform the State management over charges and fees in their respective localities, and have the responsibility to:

1. Organize and report on the collection of charges and fees in their localities to the competent superior State agencies and the People�s Councils of the same level.

2. Inspect and supervise the observance of law provisions on charges and fees in their respective localities.

3. Handle or propose competent agencies to handle violations of the legislation on charges and fees.

Chapter VI

SETTLEMENT OF COMPLAINTS AND DENUNCIATIONS

Article 29.- Organizations may lodge complaints, individuals may lodge complaints and denunciations to competent State agencies about acts of violating the legislation on charges and fees.

Article 30.-

1. If organizations and individuals that pay charges or fees disagree with the charge- or fee-collection decisions, they may send written complaints to charge- or fee-collecting organizations or individuals within 30 days as from the date of payment of charges or fees. Pending the settlement of such complaints, the complainants must abide by charge- or fee-collection decisions.

2. Within 15 days after receiving the written com-plaints, the charge- or fee-collection organizations or individuals must settle them and reply the complainants in writing; if the cases do not fall under their settling competence, they must refer the written complaints or report them to competent agencies for settlement and notify such to the complainants within 10 days after receiving the written complaints.

3. Where the time limit prescribed in Clause 2 of this Article has expired but the complaints remain unsettled or the complainants disagree with the complaints settlement decisions, they may continue lodging complaints to competent State agencies according to the Government�s stipulations or initiate lawsuits at a court.

Article 31.- The Finance Minister�s decisions on the settlement of charge- or fee-related complaints are final ones.

Chapter VII

COMMENDATION AND HANDLING OF VIOLATIONS

Article 32.- Organizations and individuals that record achievements in the implementation of the Ordinance on Charges and Fees shall be commended and/or rewarded according to law provisions.

Article 33.- Organizations and individuals that fail to pay or pay insufficient charges or fees shall not have the works served or the services provided or be handled according to law provisions.

Article 34.-

1. Those who fail to strictly comply with the provisions on the imposition, organization or implementation, management and use of charges and fees shall, depending on the nature and seriousness of their violations, be administratively sanctioned or examined for penal liability; if causing any damage, they must pay compensation therefor according to law provisions.

2. Organizations and individuals that collect charges or fees at variance with the law provisions on charges and fees shall be handled according to law provisions; the wrongly collected charges and/or fees must be refunded to the payers; where the payers of such charges and/or fees are unidentifiable, the wrongly-collected charges and/or fees must be remitted into the State budget.

Chapter VIII

IMPLEMENTATION PROVISIONS

Article 35.- This Ordinance takes implementation effect as from January 1, 2002.

All previous provisions which are contrary to this Ordinance are hereby annulled.

Article 36.- The Government shall detail and guide the implementation of this Ordinance.

On behalf of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly

Chairman
NGUYEN VAN AN

LIST OF CHARGES AND FEES

(Issued together with Ordinance No. 38/2001/PL-UBTVQH10 of August 28, 2001 of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly)

A. LIST OF CHARGES

I. Charges in the fields of agriculture, forestry and aquatic resources

1. Irrigation charge.

2. Animal and plant quarantine charge.

3. Animal and plant quality control charge.

4. Veterinary hygiene inspection charge.

5. Aquatic resource protection charge.

6. Charge for testing of drugs used for animals and plants.

II. Charges in the fields of industry and construction

1. Charge for control of the quality of products, goods, equipment, supplies, materials and/or raw materials.

2. Construction charge.

3. Charge for measurement and making of cadastral maps.

4. Charge for evaluation for the granting of the land use right.

III. Charges in the fields of commerce and investment

1. Charge for granting certificates of origin (C/O).

2. Market charge.

3. Charge for appraisal of conditional trade business.

4. Charge for appraisal of dossier for purchase or sale of ship, boat or aircraft.

5. Charge for investment evaluation.

6. Charge for bidding or auction.

7. Charge for evaluation of bidding results.

8. Charge for inspection of export or import goods.

IV. Charges in the fields of communications and transport

1. Charge for land road use.

2. Charge for inland waterway use.

3. Charge for seaway use.

4. Bridge toll.

5. Ferry charge.

6. Charge for port or terminal use.

7. Moorage.

8. Charge for maritime assurance.

9. Pilotage charge.

10. Tonnage fee for a boat or ship arriving at port.

11. Passage charge.

12. Charge for use of pavement, station, yard or water surface.

13. Charge for inspection or transport means, fishery means.

V. Charges in the field of information and communication

1. Charge for use and protection of radio frequency.

2. Charge for granting of the Internet domain name and address for use.

3. Charge for study and use of documents managed by the State.

4. Charge for inspection of conditions for postal and telecommunications operations.

VI. Charges in the fields of security, social order and safety

1. Charge for technical inspection of machinery, equipment, supplies and substances subject to stringent safety requirements.

2. Charges for security, social order and safety.

3. Charge for verification of papers or documents.

4. Vehicle watch charge.

VII. Charges in the cultural and social fields

1. Charge for expertise of relics, antiques or national precious objects.

2. Sight-seeing charge.

3. Charge for expertise of cultural products.

4. Charge for job introduction.

VIII. Charges in the field of education and training

1. Tuition.

2. Examination or selection charge.

IX. Charges in the healthcare field

1. Hospital charge

2. Charge for epidemic prevention and fight.

3. Charge for medical inspection.

4. Charge for testing of medicine sample, medicine raw material or medicine.

5. Charge for medical quarantine.

6. Charge for inspection of medical equipment.

7. Charge for inspection and control of foodstuff hygiene and safety.

8. Charge for evaluation of criteria and conditions for medical or pharmaceutical practice.

X. Charges in the fields of science, technology and environment

1. Environmental protection charge.

2. Charge for evaluation of environmental impact assessment report.

3. Sanitation charge.

4. Natural disaster prevention and fight charge.

5. Industrial property charge.

6. Charge for granting of numerical or bar code.

7. Charge for use of radiation safety service.

8. Charge for evaluation of radiation safety.

9. Charge for evaluation of conditions for scientific and technological activities.

10. Charge for evaluation of technology transfer contract.

11. Charge for inspection of measurement equipment.

XI. Charges in the fields of finance, banking and customs

1. Charge for supply of information on enterprise finance.

2. Charge for guaranty or payment when guaranty or payment services are provided by organizations or individuals.

3. Charge for use of stock market equipment or infrastructure.

4. Charge for securities activity.

5. Charge for customs sealing, lead-sealing or warehousing.

XII. Charges in the judicial field

1. Legal proceeding charge.

2. Judicial expertise charge.

3. Charge for supply of information on security transactions.

4. Charges in the legal field and for other legal services.

B. LIST OF FEES

I. State management fees related to citizens� rights and obligations

1. Nationality fee.

2. Civil status registration fee.

3. Fee for granting of passport, entry or exit visa.

4. Assorted fees applicable at overseas Vietnamese diplomatic representations and consulates.

5. Court fee.

6. Fee for granting of work permit to foreigner working in Vietnam.

7. Fee for granting of judicial record card.

II. State management fees related to the right to own or use property

1. Registration fee.

2. Cadastral fee.

3. Fee for registration of security transaction.

4. Copyright fee.

5. Industrial property registration fee.

6. Fee for granting of construction permit.

7. Fee for management of traffic means.

8. Fee for granting of house number plate.

III. State management fees related to production and business

1. Fee for granting of business registration certificate, supply of information on business registration.

2. Fee for granting of practicing license according to law provisions.

3. Fee for opening of a branch or representative office of a foreign economic organization in Vietnam.

4. Fee for granting of certificate of eligibility for provision of security services.

5. Fee for granting of certificate of eligibility for operation on various means.

6. Fee for granting of permit for use of equipment, means, detonation equipment, explosive materials, weapons and military equipment according to law provisions.

7. Fee for granting of certificate of assurance of technical quality and safety for machinery, equipment, means and substances subject to stringent safety requirements.

8. Fee for granting of permit for installation of underground work.

9. Fee for granting of export or import quota or permit.

10. Fee for granting of special permit for transportation of precious and rare forest animals and plants.

11. Fee for postal quality management.

12. Fee for granting of permit for use of the number storage for the numbering of telecommunications networks and subscribers.

13. Fee for granting and sticking of inspection stamps on programmed tapes and discs.

14. Fee for granting of permit for use of water sources.

15. Fee for granting of permit for discharging waste water into water sources.

16. Fee for granting of product or goods quality certificate.

17. Fee for granting of securities activity license.

18. Fee for the exclusive right in a number of branches or fields.

IV. State management fees for national sovereignty

1. Fee for port entry or exit.

2. Fee for flight over the airspace, crossing of the land or sea territory.

3. Fee for signature commission.

V. State management fees in other fields

1. Fee for granting of permit for use of seal.

2. Customs fee.

3. Fee for granting of paper of registration of radiation source or radiator.

4. Fee for granting of diploma or certificate.

5. Authentication fee.

6. Public notary fee.-